Double the Fun
by Teddylonglong
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Nine-year-old Fred and George Weasley decide that it is too boring at home and hide at Hogwarts for a year - mischief is preprogrammed, whilst the consequences are completely unexpected. Completely AU! Just a drabble for my readers' entertainment


**Double the Fun**  
**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

* * *

The nine-year-old twins Fred and George Weasley were what their family would describe as the biggest pranksters of all times.

They were very adept at entertaining their family and at developing and brewing prank potions. Only on this day in September, however, they found out by chance that they were able to slip into magical paintings, as they accidentally visited their grandmother in the portrait in their parents' bedroom.

In fact, the twins had been bored. Their older brother Percy, who had been the main victim of their different pranks, had recently become a student at Hogwarts and was not at home anymore. Their baby brother Ron and the even smaller sister Ginny were - in the twins' opinion - pampered little brats who thought that the world revolved around them. If Fred and George would as much as dye Ron's or Ginny's hair in some strange colour, they could be sure that their mother would ground them for a month.

Back in their own room later the same day, the twins decided to do their first really big stunt - and they were going to thoroughly plan it.

During the following weeks, they did a lot of research and used every free minute that their mother allowed them to spend in their room brewing various types of prank potions. They also eagerly practised a couple of spells and charms that would come handy at some stage. Finally, their preparations were complete, and they only had to wait for the appropriate timing.

Their opportunity came one day in December, when Ron and Ginny had both caught the wizard's flu and their mother was distracted by looking after the spoilt little monsters.

Fred took the shrunken bag with small potions phials into his robe pocket, while George pocketed the other bag with a few clothes, before they placed a parchment onto the kitchen table, which they had scribbled in advance.

_'Mum, _

_sorry, but we're going for a small trip. It's too boring here with these pampered babies. We'll be back eventually. _

_Gred and Forge'_

With that they stepped into the fireplace together and took the Floo to Diagon Alley, knowing that there was an adequate painting at the Leaky Cauldron, from which they would be able to travel to other portraits. Of course they could have used their grandmother's portrait at the Burrow, but the chance that their grandmother would tell their mother about it and inform her to where they had travelled was too big to risk choosing that way.

The twins swiftly slipped into the portrait of a huge group of wizards and witches having dinner, however, immediately left for one of the paintings in the large halls at Hogwarts.

"Yay..."

"... we managed to reach Hogwarts," they happily whispered to each other.

During the following two days, they thoroughly explored the castle on their search for an adequate portrait, preferably in an abandoned classroom or office, where they would be able to secretly spend their time.

Finally, they met a kind old witch, who introduced herself as Ceridwen Hufflepuff, the founder's younger sister.

"Why don't you stay in my sister's and brother-in-law's quarters?" she suggested, pointing out that there was a potions lab, which was well equipped and self-updating. Seeing the twins nod eagerly, she accompanied them to the portrait of all four founders of Hogwarts, which decorated the wall of the living room in her sister's quarters.

Confirming with Helga and Salazar that it was all right to live in their rooms for the time being, Fred and George profusely thanked the founders and left the portrait to explore their surroundings.

"This is just perfect for us," they concurred with each other. They happily settled into the founders' quarters, unaware of the fact that several people all over the magical world were frantically looking for them. During the following weeks, they spent their time inventing more prank potions, which they brewed in Salazar Slytherin's potions lab.

Recalling that their brother Charlie had told them about a house-elf, Mushi, who was not bonded to the headmaster but to the Care of Magical creatures professor and was a very kind elf, they called Mushi and swore her to secrecy, before they asked the elf to mix their potions under the food in the Great Hall once a day. Depending on the potion, it had to be mixed under the students' food or under the teachers' or just a single person's food.

Travelling through the many portraits in the Hogwarts halls, the twins never left out an occasion to secretly admire their own work. To the teachers' annoyance, they usually chose Monday mornings to flood the halls with self duplicating chocolate frogs or items like lemon drops, so that everyone arrived late for their first morning class. At other times, the floors in the entrance hall were changed into sand, mud or other consistencies that made it difficult to move on.

One weekend, the students had a lot of fun observing the Potions Master stride through the halls barking at the students as if he were a canine.

When the twins were not occupied with new prank plans, they used the time to spy on the teachers. If they lingered at the very back of a portrait or painting, they could not be seen by the people in the room, however, could witness everything that occurred outside of the portrait.

The four founders were glad to have students live in their rooms after many years and eagerly taught them spells and charms that they deemed useful. Salazar even taught them prank potions, which he had invented in his own time.

HP

It was six months since the twins had moved to Hogwarts when they witnessed a staff meeting in the evening of the day, during which they had given the headmaster one of Salazar's potions that made him change into a troll for twenty-four hours.

"Albus, do you have any idea who could have done this to you?" McGonagall queried, staring at the headmaster in his troll form in disbelief.

"No dear," Dumbledore replied, sighing.

"These pranks are getting more dangerous nowadays. It has to be someone who's extremely gifted at Potions," Professor Flitwick threw in.

"I don't have a clue," Professor Snape replied, indifferently.

"Very well then, we urgently need a good Defence Against the Dark Arts professor," McGonagall continued the meeting on Dumbledore's behalf. "Even if the spell on the position is not broken yet, I'd like to have a good teacher, who could become the Gryffindor head of house in order to possibly take over the Defence position again just after a short break. However, the only good candidate I could come up with is a werewolf."

HP

When the twins told the founders about the conversation they had witnessed, as the founders were always eager to know what was going on in their school, Salazar let out a snort.

"Now you can make up a bit for your pranks," he told the twins and proceeded to teach them how to brew the wolvescure potion, which apparently had to be lost in the current time.

The twins immediately set to work, and when the teachers arrived in the staff room for their next meeting, they found a small phial waiting in the middle of the table.

_'The WOLVESCURE POTION'_ it was labelled.

_'Recipe by Salazar Slytherin, brewed by Fred and George Weasley'_ was added as a comment with the additional instruction _'has to be taken between 10 and 3 days before the full moon'._

"The Weasley twins!" McGonagall blurted out, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "They must be at Hogwarts then. I need to inform their mother right away. And that explains who has been playing pranks on a daily basis during the last six months. Let me get my hands on these pranksters."

"Yes my dear, but first of all, we need to contact Molly Weasley and Remus Lupin," the headmaster replied, gently. "I can't imagine that they'd joke with something like this, and I'm going to ask Mr. Lupin if he's willing to try the potion. If it's really them who played all the pranks, they have to be adept enough at Potions to brew such a potion flawlessly."

The twins merely grinned, knowing that the founders had reassured them that no one, not even a house-elf, who was not aware of their quarters, would be able to locate the twins.

Whilst the teachers along with the Weasleys spent the following weeks inefficiently searching for the twins all over Hogwarts, on the first day of the summer holidays, the headmaster sent his phoenix Fawkes to find out about the twins' whereabouts.

HP

Fred and George were sitting in the living room deeply engrossed in a conversation with the founders, when Fawkes flashed into the room. He held out a parchment to the twins, which the boys accepted, hesitating.

_'My dear boys,_

_thank you so very much for curing Remus Lupin from Lycanthropy. Now the Minister of Magic would like you to brew many doses of the wolvescure potion or publish the recipe, so that many werewolves can be cured. He promised to pay 1,000 Galleons per dose and will award both of you the Order of Merlin first class. I believe that this is a good deal, and I'd like you to think about accepting it. Moreover, your mother is very worried about you and asks that you contact her as soon as possible._

_Please come to my office tomorrow morning. The password for the gargoyle is 'wolvescure.'_

_Headmaster Albus Dumbledore'_

The twins, who simultaneously finished reading their letter, exchanged a surprised look, before they began to laugh.

"We're going to be rich," the spoke up, simultaneously, before they turned to Fawkes.

"Please tell the headmaster..."

"... that we're going to visit him in the morning..."

"... provided that we'll be allowed to stay at Hogwarts..."

"... and use the potions lab here..."

"... until we're going to be first years next summer."

Fawkes let out a series of trills, before he flashed away, causing the twins to exchange a questioning look.

"He said considering that you're having your own quarters here, which the headmaster can't even access, there's no way that he can kick you out," Godric translated, grinning.

"If you're going to remain here, you're going to study though," Salazar added, grimly. "I shall teach you, so that you're going to be the youngest Potions Masters of all times."

**The End**


End file.
